I loved reading the TL awards and felt SEA should have its own version of it. This is mostly for fun and quite arbitrary, because basically everything was decided by me alone (lol). Still I put alot of thought into these awards, and I tried to make them as fair as possible. I would hate for this to turn into another drama thread so please keep in mind this is just a fun way to look back at 2011. This is also to celebrate the good stuff, so no "Biggest Fail" awards will be handed out, with the closet award to that being "Mr Confident"l!

I would say all nominees are already big winners and in some categories anyone could have won! Without further ado, presenting the SC2SEA awards 2011!

This year had its share of exciting news stories with the biggest ones huge to the extent that it caught the attention of the whole Starcraft 2 world. There was no better example then the PPSL Scandal, which brought over 50,000 hits on a single day to SC2SEA where SC2 players all over the world sympathized with YoonYJ.

SEA had its awesome share of events this year. From the $25,000 NRG lan where ST_Ace flew down to Australia to steal our monies to the fantastic City Hunter Lans, Blizzard SEA invitational and TGX finals, the first ever "SEA Regional" competition. However, there was one clear winner, which ironically wasn't a competition. It was the birth of the cultural movement known as Barcraft.

There has never before being events that could bring players together like this. Wheres LANs normally bring together just the top players, with little room for spectators to watch in crowded lans, barcrafts manage to bring the whole community together, from Bronzies to GMs all cheering on their favourite players in unison. From the barcrafts in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore a big thanks to all the organizers who made this happen. We look forward to these events for many years to come!!

Nemo and Frogmite the French Connection both joined in July 2011 and have been fantastic contributors, quickly earning their MVP titles. Erasmus a member since Jan 2011 decided to take on an Admin role and independently and tirelessly organized a league just so the PD community could have an event for themselves too! Chadmann only joined in Sep, 2011 but has already proven to be very reliable during the BSGCL as well as being the voice of reason many times on the forums.

The software designer hailing from Adelaide only joined the site in May 2011, but his quality of posts were quickly recognized. He was promoted to MVP in a month, and less than a month later promoted to a mod, breaking all records and proving once again its quality, not quantity that matters!! Apart from organizing, shoutcasting, moderating, blogging and being a big donator, he still finds the time to always make high quality posts which manage to be both humorous yet mature at the appropriate times. He rightfully wins the SC2SEA New Member of the year award.

Winner: Maynarde Mr Spark: Frogmite
A tireless source of energy, frogmite basically makes stuff happen. He single handedly put together Singapore's first barcraft and started BSGCL#2 with Maynade Mr Helpful: Nemo
For his amazing wisdom and matuirty contributed to the forum, and in particular the effort he puts in the replay analysis thread as we as helping catch them hackers.

HDPhoenix did a ton for Singapore Starcraft early in the year. Dogsi and his self sponsored tournaments brought much excitement every month to an early lackluster SEA scene. Zergtastic did a ton for the BSG community, basically being the admin for 40 weeks straight or something amazing like that. BakaInu & Paroxysm ensured the COs happened every week without fail. Lastly, Eddie who managed to secure TTeSports sponsorship as well as donates $75 of his own money every month without fail towards his Masters Cup (thanks to xant as well) as well as running the GPD every single week. These heroes are all the biggest contributors to the organizing of the tournaments on SC2SEA and basically the SEA region this year, and we are indebted to you. Not taking anything away from these guys, theres one man who descended from the heavens to save eSports in Australia and is known as jesus in some circles.

Holding 2 massive online events that were Dox Cup 1 & 2. Single handedly running and hosting various online events and qualifiers(PPSL, ACL, Charity events), and still finding the energy to cast during all of that. Choosing to build up the prize pool of Dox Cup 2 instead of flying to WCG Korea which he very well could have for a nice holiday with his buddy glade. The reason why WCG Australia even happened and why ACL will be a success. Spending a personal budget which eclipses that of entire "pro teams" flying city to city to save eSports one LAN at a time - Just to make tournaments better. He does this all expecting nothing in return, just that eSports succeeds in Australia. We thank you Superman, SC2SEA organizer of 2011!

Winner: Dox Mr Steady: Eddie
The most consistent and dependable organizer out there. He has ran and sponsored the GPDs/ Master Cups every week without fail for over a year!! Mr Banhammer: BakaInu
Laying down the law, which is not an easy to thing to since people generally do not handle getting their asses banned well.

That was my personal favourite entry this year, and I'm sure many of you felt the same way. Many of the other blogs were very good reads though, and I suggest those who missed them to give them a read. Light already won the "Scribe of SEA" achievement after his 4 series eSports Experience blog, for sharing his journey from a top players perspective which must have taken hours to write when he very well didn't have to, as well for the high quality posts he makes in the strategy forums etc so this award was kinda icing on the cake and I hope more top players share their experiences next year!

SC2SEA certainly has no shortage of talent in the artwork / graphic design department. Froggy, derpy, Stitch and System have all helped SC2SEA a ton when it came to coming up with banners and logos for our tournaments and categories. Other artists have also chipped in in various clan logo competitions and artwork. (We hope they help with our banners too next time, they get to see their artwork displayed all over the site too )

Instrumental in the creation of SC2SEA's first ever tees, Welshy was always there to help revise and adapt his designs over and over again to ensure we had the final polished version we see today! Stay tuned for more of his designs!

Apart from all these awesome designs, there is one extraordinary person that went beyond the call of duty. Apart from being a regular poster on sc2sea with over 300 posts, when he wasn't busy with his job he often went out of his way to share his talent with the community. He has helped design not just SC2SEA graphics but also helped with many various clan logos, often winning most of the competition threads with his amazing originality and artistry in his designs.

Doctor is crowned sc2sea's Artist of the year and earns himself a custom avatar (credit here)

Winners: Doctor Welshy

I have compiled a list of Doctor's creations over the last year here. Enjoy your well deserved victory!

Benji is the true work horse of the casting scene. No other caster in SEA has even done 20% of the casting benji has done this year, casting close to all events from the Masters Cups to TCLs. Apart from founding Xeria Gaming and trying to push Pro-Gaming to another level in SEA, Benji also took the time out to run the highly popular series of Mafia games. He was always extremely reliable when called upon to cast, improving his stream with overlays and finding new casters, and continues the good fight unlike most of the other casters who leave once the novelty of casting runs out for them. Because his contributions sometimes overlap with his agenda and sometimes the words he uses isn't phrased the best, it becomes easy to overlook the work has Benji has done. We are extremely thankful to Benji for all he has brought to the community and his efforts will never be forgotten.

There were alot of new clans this year worthy for the award and it was closely contested. It was mostly based on SC2SEA member activity + manner, and growth of members. I felt TCP led by Frogmite were the most active, had the best looking house clan page and was a clan where alot of the members grew as players. ToR comes a close second with Spartaz leading the charge and nRv led by PickleWeasel who had some unhappy drama with TA, managed to bounce back from that and founded a clan, quickly filling it up with a very solid roster of GM and Master players in just two months. Not only that, he now does his best to maintain a civil relationship with TA despite all that had happened between them which I like because as you know I am all for peace loving, rainbows and butterflies.

There is no other clan which has improved as much over the course of the last year as SPR. Using their Korean roots to their advantage, the imports of Korean players helped improve not just their clan but the overall skill of SEA, with the likes of Soulman, galaxy and kingkong hitting up the ladders. They trained hard as a team together, greatly improving the skill of their clan with core members like Master, SungIn and Soonghee improving significantly. Always very mannered and eager to play in friendly clan wars, the picking up of Pokerface was the icing on the cake of a great year (it was sick to see how much more he improved after he joined) and Team SPR is now the most popular channel on battle.net and for good reason.

In terms of results there is no other "Pro Team" which has won anywhere close to what the Xeria boys have won this year. In countless tournaments, they managed to secure not just one or two but always muliple top slots thanks to their incredibly stacked roster of the very best SEA players - iaguz , Mafia , Jazbas and Light . With xGking's support, some of the players even went "fully pro", quitting their jobs to do gaming full time, and the results showed. We wish xGking all the best in 2012 and hope they continue their form.

Some of these players are so low profile you probably haven't even heard of them. FaH plays for his country in DoTA as well, isn't as active but remains a formidable force which even alot of GMs will go "meh" because they are just clueless how good he is. You would only know of han if you played ladder and are a skilled player yourself, as he is low profile and doesn't join tournaments, and the same goes for cobo. YaMaMa is the most unknown of them all who started out as a tgm subscriber with a ridiculous name who was coached by OxygeN. You're probably scratching your head wondering why the hell he deserves to be nominated! Well just recently he just took out Jazbas 6-0 and nirvAna 5-0 on the ladders, and finished top 16 last season with a 70% win rate. There is one other player however, where 2011 was truly his breakout year, where the line between low profile underrated player and high profile superstar became blurred.

Winner: EnDerr

EnDerr quickly went from unknown(only famous in PH) to be recognized as one of SEA's best. For a very long time tho, he was hugely underrated by everyone in SEA and perhaps in some circles still is.

A defining performance in a specific tournament that elevated a previously underachieving player to the next level, giving him the momentum leading to a series of good results.

TargA impressed many by taking down Tester 2-0 in the NASL open brackets. He then surpassed that by qualifying for the NASL 3, being the only SEA player who will play in it. (GLaDe gave up waking at 4am). jazbas did amazing at his first Australia tourney, placing 2nd behind GLaDe in the SEA invitationals, and then went on to make SEA proud by eliminating Major at blizzcon. yaaang took down a stacked IEM Kiev bracket, beating MaFia, EnDerr and iaguz to win his first major title. Rossi won many stacked community opens and ESLs earlier in the year. Revenant made Singapore proud by flying to Thailand and stealing RedArchon's trophy and $1,500 USD cheque. There was one breakout performance however, which really defines the word "Breakout"

PiG was considered a good player for a long time but never a "great" one. That all changed in a single tournament, the IEM Guangzhou qualifiers. By beating the best in SEA and then in the finals GLaDe convincingly 2-0, he managed to win his first major title and was finally getting recognized as a top tier player in SEA. His reputation soared and that win gave him the much needed confidence boost, and a series of podium finishes followed all the way from that moment through to the end of the year. That was no doubt the breakout performance of the year which also shortly after won him his sponsorship with Tt eSports, being their only other player apart from Grandpa Toss White_Ra.

No other player seem to have the stamina and energy then that of Mafia. In season 4 alone he clocked in 600 games over 2 months on SEA alone, with an amazing 80% win rate. All that hard work paid off, and Mafia is regarded as the top 3 players in SEA by many. You might think that Starcraft takes up all his time but no, he still manages to play a good dose of WoW, make the ez monies at high stakes online poker, and still maintain a healthy dating life.

With that admirable work ethic in place, it is only a matter of time before he manages to cement himself as the #1 player in SEA.

A rookie would be someone unknown who had started the year as an up & coming player. Shortizz went from bronze to GM in a few months. Same goes for MrFool who hit GM with a total lifetime games under 200. yaaaang was a virtual unknown last year, and the same goes for Bielsko who was getting shat on for representing SA at WCG. However it takes a special amount of talent to start the year as a gold player, and then quickly become your clan's star player. Not only did Rossi become the pride of TA, he also reached the highest levels of play on SEA in an extremely short amount of time, with many CO and ESL wins to his name, and being the clutch player in many of TA's clan victories.

If the Player of the Year was based purely on results, the top 6 list would look something like above.

And nobody in SEA comes close to what GLaDe has achieved this year. Beating HuK to reach the Ro8 in Cologne, being placed in a monster group at WCG with Sen, Socke, F91, and elfi only to win it and reach the top 16. "Redeeming" himself for last year lost to RedArchon by winning the Blizzard SEA invitiational 2011 and who can forget, representing us in NASL 1 & 2 and GSL Code A. GLaDe is an absolute legend outside of the game as well. Having superb class (refusing Yoons air ticket which Gus tried to bribe him with, refusing "pro-team" offers to play in SEACL #2) and always extremely manner to friends and fans alike. With his loving muse by his side, GLaDe is in an extremely happy place at the moment and its showing in his games. 2012 can only get better for our Persian Prince.

the prince & the bee

Winner: mOOnGLaDe Mr Character: iaguz

And that wraps up the highs of 2011. May 2012 be just as awesome!
- nirvAnA

I agree with most of the posts though I think Rossi or MaFia should be ahead of PiG for the tourney breakout if you consider the entire year! Also honourable mention to ZanooKu for most confident player.

I think everyone who attended blizzcon 2011 would have enjoyed that more than NRG or barcraft, but that was only a few people so that's understandable

my elaboration ( is this a word??): First of all, I approve the use of "pro team". Kudos Nirvana!

To be honest I only disagree with a few of your awards, I think tgun and myself should be a contender for most confident, the last couple of weeks I have been trying hard to copy tguns confidence ( edge can vouch for this.)

I also disagree with the most underrated players, if you underrate enderr you are retarded. The rest on the list can barely play sc2, some of them would be contenders for "retards that amazingly know how to play computer games" I think edge and techtron are the two most underrated players on SEA.

Next one is the breakout list, I disagree. Wont elaborate since i am on that list cause people will get butthurt.

And lastly, I imagine glade is harder working than mafia, also imagine how good mafia would be if he only practiced on korea instead of fooling around on SEA! Muse is also a contender since he thinks about the game 24/7 ( and thinking equals practice, right muse??)

TargA out

Quick Comments

deL:

No award for most viking-like player :(

TAEdgE:

bradley marthinsen right here. i vouch for his confidence n_n

x5.Revenant:

It's not through prestige nor prize monies, silly! ;D

nirvAnA:

Added tgun. I orginally wanted to with shuffle but was afraid that would hurt their confidence!

HAHAHA. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ @ the SPR awards. the "imports of Korean players" thanks 캄사합니다!!! Nirvana for the mention of the team!! i will spread the word
Although our channel is mostly filled with non-SPR members, it is still awesome to have all of you here!

Also wanna mention a HUGE congradulations to mr. brian "pokerface" yoon on making Team Xeria Gaming... This is great news for us that he will be advancing with the best team in SEA

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